Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 55-56. (Budapest, 1970)

TANULMÁNYOK - Regöly-Mérei, Gyula: The Pathological Reconstruction of Semmelweis's Disease on the Basis of the Catamnestic Analysis and Palaeopathological Examination (angol nyelvű közlemény)

thological signs and reaching a climax in the known scene at the faculty meeting when Semmelweis instead of calling off the names of the professor's assistents to be appointed, read out the form of oath of midwives. A medical consultation held by Balassa, Wagner, Markusovszky and Bókay sen. suggested to put Semmelweis under psychiatric observation and treatment in Vienna. Benedek (7) finds it, rightly, quite inexplicable why the eminent Hungarian alienists F. Schwartzer and K. Bolyó had not not been consulted. In his disease now that characteristic periodicity ensues which, according to Langelüddeke, is typical of the exogenous acute infectious reaction type. After the dramatic scene at the faculty meeting, Semmelweis's mind cleared up; he was again aware of space and time. In the train he behaved accordingly: he had been told that the family was going on a holiday and he would have wished that his other children had accompanied him too, for only the baby Antonia was taken along to Vienna. After their arrival he said to Mrs. Hebra t "Da bin ich wieder, ein kranker Kerl, aber der Ferdinand wird mich schon gesund machen.

.." and then continued "Erinnern Sie sich noch, wie ich Ihnen gerufen habe: A Büberl is!" (Under Ferdinand is Hebra to be understood.) This conversation is reported by Schürer von Waldheim (61) who was the nephew of Mrs. Hebra and had been informed by her. Semmelweis does not show signs of distraction, he is illness-conscious, awaits to be restored to health and the fact that he reminds the doctor that the latter conducted the delivery shows that he wanted to establish contact with him. Under the pretext of visiting the hospital he was taken to the msntal ward. He inspected the sick-wards and found the grated windows unusual. He was told that the bars serve security reasons. Tired from the journey he was offered a room. Towards evening he awoke and wanted to leave. Held up at the gate he demanded to be allowed to leave unobstructed for he still imagined that he was the guest of the hospital. He was seized and it came to handgrips with six male nurses. It appears from Mrs. Semmelweis's interview that, according to the director, he was taken to the "dark-cell". His family and friends never saw him again. All we know is what a dark-cell and tying up meant in the past century. This scene cannot be interpreted as a fit of paralytic madness, moreover I firmly challenge its pathological character. Semmelweis was in the belief that he, a professor of medicine from abroad, was visiting a Vienna hospital. Nobody had told him that he was an in-patient of a mental hospital. He was justified to think that he could go home. Unknown men detained him in a foreign town. How a person behaves under such circumstances is a question of an individual's mental constitution. There are no reliable data available as to what happened in the lunatic asylum, whether he commited acts of raptus; maybe some records could be found in the case history, provided it contains in addition to termini technici the expert description of the possible outburst. It is however certain that according to both Mrs. Semmelweis and Schürer von Waldheim (61) Semmelweis did not commit violent acts (raptus) before he had been hospitalized, moreover he sang now and then holding his little daughter in his lap. In the train to Vienna